Ansd on the "russified" angle, there are still a lot of ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia
I can't think of any political or tactical reason.
The diplomatic, military, financial & political limitations would be too great even if there were some sort of strategic advantage to be gained. In Ukraine, they won't be occupying any area that isn't already sympathetic to their cause, ie the russified East & South.
Do you think that is a realistic scenario? Personally I don’t see an alternative but to fight Putin if he invades a NATO country. It’s a good job we had Winston Churchill in the UK during WW2 or else we would be speaking German now.
What appetite is there in any Western European country to fight once the first 1,000 body bags arrive back in Paris or London? Putin only needs to inflict losses that are intolerable to Western democracies, to win.
Unless we step up the nuclear ladder which again, who would really countenance that to defend Latvia for example?
He'd have his arse handed to him in very short order.
And he knows it.
What happens as a result of that is anyone's guess.
With Trump in the White House all bets would be off...
I would see Putin destabilising states and generally creating as much havoc as possible in Europe allowing them to step in as some kind of peacekeeper. Who knows though, these people are willing to gamble in a way normal people are not.
By all NATO members hopefully your not advocating that as long as we are ok then we don’t do anything not doing anything encourages more aggression history tells us that
I doubt we'll start WW3 over Latvia - sorry to any Latvians reading!
Putin knows it too - he's seen us slowly bottle the Ukraine situation and will have drawn his own conclusions. "Interesting" times in Europe.
The NATO secretary general was making statements every day about how NATO had made an unequivocal commitment to the Ukraine. Now he seems to have gone in hiding makes you think what would happen if Russia invaded the Baltic states and they are actually in NATO…..pathetic!!
it does - it will just embolden Putin and is the worst of all worlds. Everything points to him trying his luck on the next country and probably with the same result.
When it is vitally needed shows NATO to be weak to Putin and will encourage him to invade again suprised NATO haven’t received more criticism on this.
either they should have armed Ukraine properly from the start or not got involved. As it is NATO has led Ukraine on in terms of the support they would receive and is now looking how they can get out of the commitment.
Problem is, if Putin breaks through he's not the kind of character to stop. He'll start nibbling at Latvia, Moldova etc.
NATO general saying continuously that NATO would always give its maximum support to the Ukraine now what nothing?? Can’t believe no mention of this in the media
if Putin gets the upper hand in the next few months I can't see him coming to the negotiating table - he'll grab as much of Ukraine as he possibly can.
I can see Ukraine's front line crumbling followed by collapse and then Putin lines up his next target.
was less of a desire to kill, and more of a show in retaliation for the attack in Syria.
Not saying all is fine, and the attack was harmless (it looks like a young girl might die) but its not an outright declaration of war.
With Russia Ukraine, I cant see how Ukraine force Russia out without much more significant backing, and I dont think that will come. I can only see Ukraine being urged to compromise on some territorial losses later in the year.
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